Have you been finding ways on how to move apps from your Galaxy Note 2’s internal memory to your SD card? If you are using a stock firmware on a stock phone, it’s not possible. The recent Jelly Bean update made it impossible for you to do so. Read below to know why.

Problem: Is there a way I can move apps to my SD card or external storage device? I remember having done so when I was still running Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread. Now that I’m on Jelly Bean, which is more advanced, I can’t do it anymore. What can you suggest? Is there a clear explanation to this?

Answer: If you want a direct answer: No. There’s no way you can move apps to your SD card…unless you will root your device. It’s not really Samsung’s decision to remove the “Move to SD Card” function but Google’s. It’s a default setting for Jelly Bean-operated devices.

Neither Google nor Samsung provided an explanation why they’ve taken out such function. But one of the theories online is that Google wants OEMs to put in bigger internal storage. This will pave a way to future Android versions, which are believed to come in huge packages, and avoid data corruption due to frequent re-inserting of external storage devices.

Since Froyo times, OEMs had a habit of putting in smaller internal memory, others even use 150MB. It may be difficult to see the bright side to this especially when you’re about to run out of space in your Galaxy Note 2 but this actually brings more benefits to end-users, at least, in the future.

Going back to Galaxy Note 2, again, you need to root your device to be able to use apps that could transfer data and installed apps to the external storage. But then you’ll have to consider the risks of having to root your device as well as accept the fact that you can’t claim warranty if you brick your device along the way.